Thought Crime Bill

FARM mentioned this new bill that is in the Senate in an email a few weeks ago. It has since passed the House, and it passed by an insanely high margin.

AETA is frightening enough. AEPA was the precursor, and that is what the SHAC were tried and convicted under. Unless I’ve missed it, and granted I haven’t been reading that many bloggers of late, I haven’t seen anyone (of the AR bloggers I do read) posting on this, and that is frightening as well. I hope everyone knew about it already.

So what am I talking about, exactly? H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. Now, if we were trusting souls, we’d think that the anti-terrorist laws that have already passed in this country were about, well, terrorists. People flying planes into buildings, people blowing up as many other people as possible. Not, you know, people trying to save trees and animals, people who did tree sits and who had websites, but who did not kill or attempt to kill or harm or attempt to harm anyone. Not trees, animals, or people. Causing some damage to an SUV, yes. Unoccupied, at night, away from all structures that could be harmed. (Slightly diminishing the value of an unoccupied SUV gets you a longer prison term than murdering a human being. Go figure.)

So we already know what our government considers terrorism – anything that negatively affects the bank statement of big business. What will they consider “force”? Handing out leaflets might be “forcing” ideological positions on others, right?

And so we can’t be trusting. If you can be put in prison as a terrorist having never harmed or attempted to harm or conspired to harm anyone, then this bill is a step further than that, at least. Rogue government calls it the Thought Crime Prevention Bill. And that sounds about right.

We always feared that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act was just an appetizer for more repressive legislation from the Bush administration. Our fears were realized last month, when the U.S. House of Representatives voted 404-6 to enact H.R. 1955 – The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. The bill is now before Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee as S.1959.The Act would establish a “National Commission on the prevention of violent radicalization and ideologically based violence” and a university-based “Center for Excellence” to “examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism and ideologically-based violence in the U.S.” to develop policy for prevention, disruption and mitigation.

The bill defines “homegrown terrorism” as “planned” or “threatened” use of force to coerce the government or the people in the promotion of “political or social objectives.” No force need actually to have been used as long as an individual thought about it – hence the label “Thought Police” bill.

The Commission has sweeping investigative powers and a mandate to propose laws prohibiting whatever the commission labels “homegrown terrorism.” The “Center of Excellence,” which would function after the commission is disbanded in 18 months, is expected to suppress dissent, rather than conduct intellectual research on the subject.